Basketball Nationals Update

This is a busy time for our Nationals staff and we are going to try to communicate on a regular basis so that we won't overwhelm you with information all at one time. We will be looking for individuals and families to help with various things this year and will post those opportunities in these e-mail updates. In this update we are looking for a few people to help with Media Relations (see below). We would also like to ask you to forward this e-mail to knew families in your program.


Springfield Drive Time Savings

One thing that we liked about Springfield is the size of the city. While it is big enough to accommodate a tournament the size of Nationals, it is small enough that all the gyms and hotels are in a 6-7 mile from the center of the city. This makes all gyms and hotels within about 12 miles.
A special thank you to Randy Martin from Memphis actually did a Google map of all the hotels, colleges and high school gyms, here is the link. http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=114826141753583136334.00045443d920c7bac7c90

To give you an idea of the economic impact of this, if the average family that travels to three gyms in a day they would travel an average of 50 miles fewer per day or 300 miles per week. If the average team has 5 vehicles that is 1500 vehicles driving 360,000 fewer miles and at say 15 miles a gallon and gas at $4.00 per gallon (although last weekend I saw gas in Springfield gas was $3.33 per gallon), the savings will be $120,000 for the homeschool families.



All-American Nominations

Next week we will be announcing the procedure for All-American Nominations. There will be many new facets to this year's procedure and it will be very exciting, stay tuned.


National's Hotel Link -- Springfield CVB

The link for hotels in Springfield is http://www.springfieldmo.org/housing Many hotels are filling up quickly. I was surprised to see that the Double Tree (which is widely considered the nicest hotel in Springfield) hasn't received very many reservations. Every team that books through this link with the CVB will receive a rebate details to follow.


Television Deal

We are getting close to having a TV deal finished and making and hope to make an official announcement soon.

Preseason Tournament

The Tip Off Tournament will be held in Springfield MO November 13-15th. We already have teams from Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Tenessee signed up (Where's Texas?). If you would like more information please contatc Kurt Talbot at 1-417-880-4875.

Media Relations A Family Project

I am looking for 3-4 families from around the country that would be willing to serve as Media Relations Directors. I will be glad to train individuals for this project. This will be a huge help to Nationals and a great learning experience.

NEW Regional Tournaments

Next week we will be releasing the new Regional breakdown that will include information on All Region Teams, Automatic Division I bids and a couple of new Regional Tournaments.

Fundraising Project

The year we have introduced a new fundraising program for teams and families to help offset their expenses to attend Nationals. For example if a team raises $2500 they receive FREE team fee, FREE players registration, a $75 gas card for each player and coach (total of 11) and a FREE Pizza Party ticket and Gymsack for all players. For more information go to the website and click on Founders Club in the left column. www.homeschoolbasketball.com We will also have some more exciting news about this program relating to FREE All-American and National Championship rings.



Tim Flatt